Scripture

Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy. Psalm 47:1

Observation
Clapping. We do it at concerts and football games. Applause is the reward of performers. But there is more to clapping than two hands in rapid motion.

Think of clapping as a weapon and you will have a better idea of what it really means. In the Bible there are two reasons why people clap.

Clapping establishes rulership. When God’s people clapped kings were established and God took dominion over his land. So when we clap in worship we are extending the authority of the kingdom of God.

Clapping pronounces destruction over enemies. Applause sounds very different in the ears of the defeated than it does in the ears of the victors. Demoralization is the result of clapping over the victory of God. When we give a clap offering to the Lord, we also intimidate the enemy of our souls.

Application
A clapping church is a victorious church that reigns over the enemy. It is easy to make prayer and worship an internal intellectual process. Clapping makes worship a contact sport where enemies are tackled and brought down.

Prayer
Father, help my life to inspire others to applaud you and to tear down strong holds in that process. Amen.

Other verses on clapping in the Bible:

Jehoiada brought out the king’s son and put the crown on him; he presented him with a copy of the covenant and proclaimed him king. They anointed him, and the people clapped their hands and shouted, “Long live the king!” 2 Kings 11:12

All who pass your way clap their hands at you; they scoff and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?” Lamentations 2:14-16

For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Because you have clapped your hands and stamped your feet, rejoicing with all the malice of your heart against the land of Israel…Ezekiel 25:6

Nothing can heal your wound; your injury is fatal. Everyone who hears the news about you claps his hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty? Nahum 3:19

Press the arrow to listen to Hillsong sing “Wonderful God” while reading today’s devotion on worship in pain.

Scripture
But about midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns of praise to God, and the prisoners were listening to them; and suddenly there came a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison house were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened. Acts 16:25-26

Observation
There are some things in the spiritual life that seem frivolous. Taking singing for example. Humming a happy tune seems like a featherduster compared to the powerful things a human being can do. Kickboxing or something aggressive like that would seem to be a more impressive response to crisis.

But Paul and Silas at midnight began to sing. Their song changed everything. They brought the house down.

Hours before they had been beaten with rods. Imagine being whacked incessantly with broomsticks across bare skin. Midnight was like dayligh because of the unmedicated throbbing. Pain gave their song power. The holy martyrs have a front row seat in heaven for this same reason. God’s broken are the strongest ones. Their power is seen in their use of strength to run into commitment rather than to run from it.

Worship in pain brings results. First, the boulders of the earth became backup singers to the midnight worship. Jesus said that the rocks can cry out. The yawning caverns of the earth groaned from the magma up to the glory of God. Then the prison warden, who lived upstairs, rushed to Paul’s cell for the altar call. Paul’s choice to praise in pain touched the man’s heart and brought him to his knees.

Application
Ache is a call to worship and pain is a worship leader. I visited a godly woman in her last days, dying of cancer. She told me that the simple truths of her faith had become most profound to her. On her bed of sickness she had hummed over and over again, “Oh, the blood of Jesus, it washes white as snow.” I need to let pain be the worship leader in my life.

Prayer
Father, help me to be a better worshipper. Amen.

Press the arrow to listen to Hillsong sing Lord of Lords as you read today’s devotion.

Scripture

The heavens proclaim his righteousness;
every nation sees his glory. Psalm 97:6

Observation

No nation can build a wall high enough to shut out the presence of God. The Iron Curtain did not keep God out, nor did the Berlin Wall. The heavens declare the glory of God and nothing can keep God from advertising on his billboard.

Application

Today I received an email from my friend, Pastor Bong, in Yangoon, Myanmar. He sent images of his Bible College and home decimated by the cyclone. The nation of Burma has closed its doors to help. I watched a news clip on CNN yesterday on the destruction there, and even CNN was so short of footage that they looped a short video clip again and again. There is a helpless feeling as I pray for the believers there. And yet this word gives me hope. God cannot be shut out. Even Burma will see his glory.

Prayer

Father, today I ask for the people of Myanmar, especially the believers there, that you would reveal yourself in unstoppable ways. Open the doors that aid can enter. Reveal yourself in the sky to them. Let that nation see your glory. Amen.

Press the arrow to see a very different way to start your morning!

Scripture
Happy are those who hear the joyful call to worship,
for they will walk in the light of your presence, Lord.
They rejoice all day long in your wonderful reputation.
They exult in your righteousness. Psalm 89:15-16

Observation
Shhh! Can you hear it? If you listen underneath the noise of the alarm clock radio, the Today Show, tires thumping over concrete cracks, ringing phones and all the sounds of daily life you will hear it. It sounds like a party in the distance. There is not one speaker or amplifier, but the volume pulses with the voices of billions. Heaven is waking you up today, if you will listen.

God wakens us each morning with the sounds of heaven, if we will make the choice to listen. The Orthodox Jew rolls out of bed and makes the first words he speaks each day praise to the Lord. The prophet Zephaniah writes that the Lord “rejoices over us with singing.” God is giving a concert and it is our choice to listen.

The choice to listen to the morning call to worship changes an entire day. It is not as if we must live in monastic silence to hear it. Instead, in the cacophony of sounds the choice to concentrate on the conversation of heaven is all that is required. Our voice added to that echo makes all the difference.

Application
The other day I wanted to wake up grumpy. As I drove my wife to work and we prayed together in the car, the first words in my mind were protest and not praise. But I made a choice to tune my instrument with the sounds of heaven. I didn’t speak any of the grumpy words. I spoke words of thanks for things I did not feel but were solidly true. The more I spoke those words of thanks, the more I found myself hearing delightful sounds of heaven. It is impossible to have a pity party when heaven is having its own party every day.

Words of thanks and praise are the fastest way to land in the presence of God. We enter the gates of God’s city with “thanksgiving” and we walk into his house with “praise” (Psalm 101). Faster than we can say, “Beam me up Scotty”, our words of thanks and praise take us from the grey city where we live into the bright city of God.

Happiness is a choice to live with the happiness of God. Why would I want to live beneath my privileges of joy when there is so much to be received?

Prayer
Father, today I’m listening and responding to the sounds of heaven. Help me to worship all day long. Amen.